


Mercy

by Merlin_would_love_vines



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Angst, Canonical Character Death, Character Death, Dark, Dark Merlin (Merlin), Death, Gen, I hope, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Insanity, Mentions of other characters - Freeform, Merlin Needs a Hug (Merlin), Sad, The ending is kinda happy maybe, sad Arthur
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-21
Updated: 2020-08-21
Packaged: 2021-03-06 19:13:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,229
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26034007
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merlin_would_love_vines/pseuds/Merlin_would_love_vines
Summary: Arthur came back when the world needed him most, just as it was foretold. He came back to fulfil his destiny and reunite with the sorcerer who had been walking Earth for centuries upon centuries, faithfully awaiting the King's return.Until he decided he couldn't anymore.Arthur never could have guessed what he'd be saving the world from.
Relationships: Merlin & Arthur Pendragon (Merlin)
Comments: 14
Kudos: 62





	Mercy

**Author's Note:**

> So this idea hit me and I decided I didn't mind suffering a bit more today and wrote it. Thanks for reading!

Arthur came back when the world needed him most, just as it was foretold. He came back to fulfil his destiny and reunite with the sorcerer who had been walking Earth for centuries upon centuries, faithfully awaiting the King's return.

Until he decided he couldn't anymore.

Arthur never could have guessed what he'd be saving the world from.

"Merlin, please," He pleaded, grip tight on the sword dragged from the lake with him. "Merlin it's me, I'm back. You don't need to do this!"

Merlin's lips curled up in a smile. It wasn't cruel or sinister, or any other things that might be expected of a man musing the death of billions. It was simply there. Vacant.

The sorcerer didn't seem interested in Arthur the slightest bit, instead directing his attention to the ball of fire floating in his hand, the rhythmic flames twisting this way and that because of the breeze carried from the great lake they stood on the shore of.

Arthur wiped away the water still dripping into his eyes from his drenched hair. Merlin's next words made his hand freeze at his forehead.

"But it's not you. It hasn't been you since Camlann. You're just a figment of a broken man's imagination." Merlin finally turned his gaze to the blond: those once clear, blue eyes were clouded and held no sense of feeling. He hadn't the effort to even show disbelief to what he believed was a trick of his twisted mind.

Arthur knew it would seem like all the others. He had watched his beloved friend's desent into madness, the surfaces of water and death keeping his screams from reaching Merlin's ears.

All their screams.

Gwen, Morgana, Lance, Gwaine, and Gaius as well as many more had tried to reach him despite it's impossibility every time he came to the lake. They had all watched his fits of sorrow and rage, screaming for Arthur, for anyone. It was when he stopped that they knew he had been broken beyond repair.

It was when he fell to his knees crying with joy as he looked out at the lake, crying out to Arthur that he knew he'd be back, that they tried to swim through the barrier of death to reach him.

They could not. But Merlin fell for it everytime in his desperation.

Arthur could only return and disappear so many times before his splintered mind grew bored of that and moved on to others. It had grown worse and worse, until they thought he could bear no more. The first time he drowned himself in the lake was the day he acknowledged the curse played upon him by his mind.

Arthur stared at the man he had watched die for a lifetime, knowing what had to be done was an act of mercy.

"I'm so sorry," His words fell on deaf ears though Merlin nodding at him in understanding.

"It never was easy, seeing what this world has become." Merlin vanished the fire with a flick of his wrist. "The suffering that grew with every generation, it will never end. I've got to stop it because he'll never be back. And you can't stop me." He pointed at Arthur when the word he'll passed his lips and Arthur shivered because of that rather than the bone deep chill of his soaked clothes. Merlin still thought him a trick, the last shred of humanity from his tortured conscience.

Arthur supposed he was as he considered the shadow of Merlin before him, the shadow that looked back with almost nothing behind those eyes.

The King shook his head wistfully with a pitiful pulling of his eyebrows together. "I am."

The warlock flashed his teeth in a grin that shouldn't have appeared at the words. It looked so similar to the ones Arthur would see grace his face so long ago when they talked. Specifically the one he remembered when going to see what was bothering Merlin after unknowingly killing who he had come to know in Avalon as Freya. Arthur faltered with the realization that it was as false as it had always been.

Merlin walked closer and Arthur hated the way he tightened his grip and lifted his sword on instinct. It affected Merlin in no way whatsoever and he stopped a few scant inches from Arthur, eyes never leaving the blond's. The sharp point of the sword was angled straight up at his stomach, another step would have it running him through.

"It's useless to keep thinking he'll come back, that he would stop the wicked madness of this world." Merlin looked at Arthur but he knew the raven-haired man was talking to himself, talking to what he thought was left of his mercy or whatever he thought Arthur was. "But he never will end all this suffering, so I have to for him."

Merlin took a deep breath and then the lilt of foreign words Arthur didn't recognize were rushing out and he had no choice but to act, the possibility of the next syllable bringing everything around them to ash propelling him.

Tears bled from him and he felt sick as he plunged the sword upward and Merlin's chant morphed into a sharp intake of breath.

The sword ripped through his heart as it had Morgana's. The pain was so immense, so unlike any he had felt in all his deaths, that he knew it had to be the same weapon he had entrusted to the lake. The only object capable of killing the long rusted half of a coin. The clarity shone through in his clouded, wide eyes.

Lips parted, he tilted his head up to stare into those weeping eyes as his final breath rattled out. "Arthur..."

The King's shoulders shook as he cried and ripped the sword out, the resulting sound sickening him further. Merlins knees hit the ground as he still stared up. His eyes dimmed before Arthur's very own and his body collapsed into the rough stones below their feet. The sword fell from Arthur's grasp, scattering the gravel.

Arthur started to choke on more than just sobs and fell to his hands and knees, his vision blurred by tears. He gasped and looked to Merlin's body to see wisps of something he could not describe flowing from it and faded into nothingness before him. A sudden pricking of his slowing heart marked the instant he realized.

It was magic.

Merlin, the greatest sorcerer to walk the earth, magic itself, was dead. Magic was gone. And the last of it that had brought a King back was fading fast, Arthur finding it harder to draw breath with every passing second.

He struggled to crawl over and lay beside Merlin, not wanting to die without him close this time around. He turned his head to look at that face with it's prominent cheekbones, a strange sense of peace washing over him. He had done it.

The world was safe and Merlin was free.

Arthur closed his eyes and let the waves lapping at his feet lull him into the sweet darkness he had felt before. This time, he would be waking to the sight of joyous reunions. A final breath escaped his lips as he went to join the rejoicing souls in Avalon.

The last trace of magic left the world as a King and servant embraced.


End file.
